ABSTRACT
Illegal residence appears to be unevenly spread across the Netherlands; an explorative study indicated that most illegal residents lived in the four large cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) as well as a number of border and rural areas (Engbersen et al. 2002). It can therefore be assumed that illegal migrants make up a considerably larger part of the population in some places than the national average of 1 per cent – locally probably up to about 6 to 8 per cent (Leerkes et al. 2004). Studies in other countries indicate a similar pattern: illegal residence is concentrated in specific urban and rural environments (Chavez 1992; Miller 1995; Bade 2003; Cornelius 2005).
